Voyager Drabble and Ficlet Collection
by Vestal Virgin
Summary: This is an ongoing collection of my J/C drabbles and flash fics. Rather than posting such short works as separate stories, all of my drabbles and ficlets will be added to this collection, posted as separate chapters.
1. Tether

**A/N: I've never liked the scene in "Coda" when Janeway is declared dead in sickbay, and Chakotay leaves and is not seen again until her funeral. I understand why the scene was written that way, I just don't like it. This is my first attempt at writing a drabble and a missing scene.**

***V*V***

TETHER

He groped his way blindly to the bridge, still trapped in the vision of her body in sickbay. Stumbling from the turbolift, he was snapped back by Tuvok's question. What answer could he give her oldest friend other than to collapse to the deck, face buried between his hands, hoping to miraculously silence his soul's wail? "Kathryn!"

"Chakotay!" Tom reached him first, but not even the medic dared touch him.

"I'm here, my love!" Kathryn cried as her hand passed through Chakotay's heart, the flash of his pain tethering her to life. She would conquer death for him – for them.


	2. Wonder

**A/N: This drabble is one of two written for VAMB's Secret Drabble/Ficlet Exchange 2014. My recipient was red2007, whose first line was "I think this may be my favorite part." **

***V*V***

WONDER

"I think this may be my favorite part." Chakotay spoke quietly, watching Kathryn's approaching reflection in the observation window.

"What? The stars?"

"Partly. It's the unfamiliar stars changing every light year. The hum of the ship sailing through the vastness of space."

"Six years out here hasn't been enough change?"

He smiled. "Sometimes. In the Maquis, I lost my sense of wonder. Too much was at stake."

"Would you be surprised if this is my favorite part, too?"

"It's 0400, and you're here."

She shifted to her left foot, not quite touching his shoulder with hers. "We are, aren't we?"


	3. Mucking Around

**A/N: This drabble is the second of two written for VAMB's Secret Drabble/Ficlet Exchange 2014. Red2007 was my recipient, and her first line was "I think this may be my favorite part."**

***V*V***

MUCKING AROUND

"I think this may be my favorite part."

Naomi watched the captain pull out a handful of pumpkin. "Ewww, it's slimy!" Naomi giggled as she plunged in her hand.

Janeway chuckled. "Ah, but good slimy. We get to muck around, with a fun excuse. A jack-o-lantern!"

Naomi squeezed her fingers, and a seed splatted on the captain's cheek. Janeway gasped, then laughed and threw one at the child.

Chakotay entered the mess hall and found Naomi and Janeway in hysterics and covered in orange slime. Grinning, he backed out and tapped his combadge. "Ensign Wildman, are you busy right now?"


	4. Admiral's Promise

**A/N: This ficlet was inspired by a screen cap of Admiral Janeway kneeling at Chakotay's grave in the episode Endgame. Written from Janeway's POV.**

*****V*V*****

We are given only one life to live. I find that unacceptable. I'm not prepared to live without you, and so I'll refuse this life.

I can go back. Go back to the final window we were given before our paths diverged forever. Go back to the moment I faced my own heart, and turned it away.

You're there, Chakotay. I know you are, because you were my heart.

Another chance, another life, another time to cling with everything I have to everything you are.

That was supposed to be my life. Only that will I accept.

We are given only one life to live. I will find you in it, and we will live it together.


	5. Only You

**A/N: This ficlet was inspired by the scene during the episode Night when Chakotay goes to see Janeway to try to get her to leave her quarters.**

***V*V***

_What do you see when you look at me, Chakotay?_

I see a captain whose sense of responsibility to her crew runs so deeply, she would lay down her life for them without a thought. A captain whose wisdom demands more from herself than from those she leads; whose daring sends her to the front lines ahead of the officers who serve her, and whose pride in the uniform she wears means that losing is never an option, because to fail would be to betray the very core of her being.

But no matter how far in the shadows she hides, I also see the woman standing in the wings. A woman who tries so hard to be strong, that she makes herself vulnerable. A woman so determined to protect her heart, that anyone allowed in knows without doubt what an honor they have been granted; whose passion for exploration cannot always bury her wistful dreams for a home and family of her own. I see a woman so beautiful that to watch her smile is to see the sunrise streak through blackest night as though for the very first time.

I see you, Kathryn. Only you.


	6. Moments Like These

**A/N: This ficlet was inspired by one of my favorite screen caps of Chakotay, when he is leaning against the wall with one arm above his head staring through a viewport. Chakotay's POV**

***V*V***

There are moments when the full reality of our situation hits me. Sometimes, they are the quiet moments in ship's night, when I have retired to my quarters and simply stand watching the vast space through which we travel. Other times, they are the moments when klaxons ring out, and we are fighting for our lives with Captain Janeway's barked orders seeming to mock the futility of it all.

There are moments when, in this reality, I wish only to rest, to lower my tired body to the ground and close my eyes. It is these moments when light inevitably finds me once again. Not the light of the stars, or light of ship's day, or the light that shines in the mirror reflecting my worn and weary image back to me. _Her_ light. My captain, who holds the light of a thousand moons in her blue eyes and a thousand suns in her smile. The light of her heart that is courageous beyond belief, compassionate beyond reason, and unyielding beyond measure.

Her light draws me as I push my battered soul into that bright radiance once more. I gave my word in promises uttered when I donned the uniform I previously had lain aside, and uttered when I sat at a table, twirling my pencil, and spoke to her of a legend. I am honor bound to her side, but bound by love to her light. Other moments will come just as this one has. For now, I push away from the viewport, square my shoulders in the red-and-black that weighs against me, and search for my captain. She believes we will make it, and so I offer her my support and, in most moments, I believe with her.

I believe that one day, there will come that moment when I will call her my Kathryn.


	7. Begin Again

**A/N: The short conversation that should have happened after _Voyager_ entered the Alpha Quadrant.**

***V*V***

"What if I ask you to stay, Chakotay?"

"What if I say yes, then what am I staying for? Or better yet, who am I staying for? The captain or Kathryn?"

"The captain needed you behind her, supporting her and this ship, for the last seven years. Kathryn needs you beside her. I need you."

"Why now?"

"Because I can't stand here and watch you walk away from me one more time."

"You never watched the other times, either. You turned away from me. I won't stay because you need me. I'll stay only if you want me."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference, Kathryn, is between your mind and your heart. In your mind, you need me. Your heart has to want me."

"My heart has always wanted you."

"What happens now?"

"We begin again, Chakotay, and this time we get it right."


	8. Hands of Love

**A/N: A brief look at Chakotay and Kathryn in their twilight years.**

***V*V***

Sun bronzed and weathered, with knuckles a tad larger than they used to be, deeper wrinkles, bluer veins - they were the hands of the man she loved more than life itself. She watched those hands as they carried her teacup to the same small, round table they had built. Without a sound, the cup settled in front of her, and a roughened fingertip trailed across her jaw, tucking a snow-white lock behind her ear. She smiled and reached up, brushing silver strands back from blue lines over his brow.

Tanned fingers gently caught her pale, almost translucent ones. Dark eyes sparked as his lips skimmed her palm, warming the delicate skin that stayed cooler than it used to. His habit, during the times throughout the day when he would pull her into his arms, was to open his shirt and cradle her cold hands against his chest. She looked forward to those moments, savoring the connection of life shared.

His voice, a little roughened with age, spoke softly. "Kathryn, when did you say they are coming?"

"They should be here any minute now."

"I still find it hard to believe that both Tom's and Harry's great grandchild is the same child."

She laughed and straightened the collar of his blue shirt. "They've been friends for over eighty years, Chakotay. It was bound to happen somewhere down the line."

"You know what's happened, don't you?"

"What's that?"

"We're old."

"You just noticed?"

He smoothed his thumb over her cheekbone that stood out sharper in recent years. "Only in myself, love. You are as beautiful as always."

"And you are going blind, old man."

At the sound of a baby's cry, they looked through the window to see four generations of the Paris and Kim families on the lawn, spreading blankets on the ground and opening picnic baskets. Chakotay stood up with a groan and pressed a still powerful fist into the small of his back. The same weathered hand then tenderly helped her up and slid around her thin but straight shoulders. Her cool fingertips grazed his lined forehead, combing back the stubborn, silver hair.

With steps slowed by the passage of time, but as perfectly matched as they once had been on a ship half a galaxy away, the elderly couple walked out into the sunlight to welcome their newest crew member.


	9. First Contact

FIRST CONTACT

_A/N: The first moments when Janeway and Chakotay meet face-to-face. Chakotay's POV._

***V*V***

The gods had a sense of humor, after all. The evidence stood in plain sight before me, about chin level, eyes searing with blue flame. Hair glittered the color of desert sunset, and flawless skin flushed with the lightest shade of a pink rose. Hers was a beauty that must be studied to be appreciated, each sight revealing a new wonder of perfection.

But if those first moments taunted me with feminine delicacy, the next ensnared me with a ruthless truth. Friend or foe - the choice belonged to me, but the conqueror had already been decided and my fate forfeited before I knew the game. The Maquis warrior fell without a shot to a force of nature in heels.

Oh yes, the gods laughed that day, but I allowed them their amusement. I only hoped that seventy-five years would be enough time to unravel her mystery.


End file.
